The creek before the 1930s

This late 19th century map color-highlight in red how the creek drained before the Trinity River was re-channelized, with levees, in the 1930s. Originally named "Gilbert's Creek", its branches included not only the main branch (highlighted in green) but it also drained what-is-now Lake Cliff and the Western Heights escarpment face north of the Belmont Hotel. The creek was re-named for William Nelson Coombes, who bought-out Gilberts' land claim in the 1840s.